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THE INCIDENTAL ACQUISITION OF WORD MEANING THROUGH ORAL CONTEXT
Abstract
The primary purpose of this study was to determine whether or not the process of meaning acquisition and vocabulary development begins with an initial exposure to an unfamiliar word within the oral context of a children's story. The effect of the order in which the posttest was given on the posttest score was also measured. Two children' books were selected and taped for use in the study: Solomon the Rusty Nail and The Legend of the Veery Bird. A list of ten unfamiliar words and three sentences containing those words from each of the two books comprised the oral posttest. A pilot study and the remaining research were conducted in a small Northwestern town. Children were randomly assigned to membership in the experimental group for one book and the control group for the other, simultaneously. The order of the oral posttest was manipulated so that an approximately even number of males and females were given the posttest in each of four orders for both books. A proportionate random sample of 128 children in self-contained third grade classrooms listened to tapes of one of the books and were given individual posttests. Analysis of variance indicated that significant differences existed between the experimental and control groups and between males and females for both books. For Solomon the Rusty Nail, a comparison of means by group yielded an F ratio of 69.46, p $<$.0001. A comparison of means by gender yielded an F ratio of 4.58, p $<$.0344. For The Legend of the Veery Bird a comparison of means by group yielded an F ratio of 16.72, p $<$.0001. When the means were compared on the basis of gender, an F ratio of 5.94, p $<$.0163 was calculated. There was no significant order effect for either of the books. Neither the F ratio of 1.64 for Solomon the Rusty Nail nor the F ratio of.79 for The Legend of the Veery Bird were significant at the.05 level.
Subject Area
Literacy|Reading instruction
Recommended Citation
LABONTY, JANICE LEA MCPHERSON, "THE INCIDENTAL ACQUISITION OF WORD MEANING THROUGH ORAL CONTEXT" (1987). ETD collection for University of Nebraska-Lincoln. AAI8719780.
https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/dissertations/AAI8719780